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- ACS, acute coronary syndromes
- FRISC II, Fragmin and fast revascularisation during instability in coronary artery disease
- LV, left ventricular
- PCI, percutaneous coronary intervention
- PRAIS-UK, prospective registry of acute ischaemic syndromes in the UK
- RITA 3, randomised intervention trial of unstable angina
Acute coronary syndromes (ACS) are a major health problem and account for a large proportion of the total number of hospitalisations in the UK. The question as to whether and when revascularisation is indicated remains controversial and the choice of surgery or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or continued medical treatment is often difficult. Such decisions are critically dependent on the clinician’s ability to risk stratify patients at presentation and to calculate the risk of invasive treatments. Our study aimed at identifying those risk factors that predict an increased mortality following PCI for non-ST elevation ACS.
METHODS
This was a retrospective outcome analysis of 630 sequential patients undergoing urgent PCI over a two year period (January 1999 to December 2000). All patients had the procedure during the same admission for unstable angina pectoris, non-ST elevation myocardial infarction, or unstable postinfarct angina. The chosen risk factors for mortality analysis were age, sex, ethnic group, hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia, renal impairment, smoking, family history of ischaemic heart disease, previous myocardial infarction, any serious comorbidity, obstructive airways disease, peripheral vascular disease, number of vessels diseased, left ventricular (LV) function, and partial revascularisation. Cardiac troponin T was not routinely measured at our institution during the study period. A univariate analysis was performed to examine which variables were …